Summer is the time for that age-old custom, the barbecue cookout. But this tradition's roots reach further back into history than you might think. For example, did you know that your barbecue owes a debt to pirates?

If you were a sailor, which refers to the wooden framework for meat drying and cooking. It turns out some rough characters made their living by preserving meat on racks to sell to passing ships, and occasionally they would take one of these ships. So in short order, the word buccaneer (originally, meaning jerky maker) became synonymous with the word pirate.